为什么要读文学作品？

Why read literature?

让我们花点时间思考一下我们为什么要读文学作品。当然，没有单一或简单的答案。人们读书是为了获得信息、娱乐、接触新思想或强化熟悉的概念。通常，人们读书只是为了欣赏一个好故事或了解其他人的想法和感受。但文学的作用远不止给我们一个引人入胜的情节或让我们了解作者的思想和情感——尽管在最好的情况下，它也能做到这些。文学探索更广阔的世界，以及人们与这个世界和彼此互动的方式。所以，即使我们读到的是完全虚构的，我们仍然可以了解现实生活。事实上，通过影响我们的思想和感受，文学也可以间接影响我们的行为。因此，文学不仅反映了我们的世界，甚至有助于塑造我们的世界。

Let’s take a moment to reflect on why we read literature. Of course, there is no single or simple answer. People read to be informed, to be entertained, to be exposed to new ideas, or to have familiar concepts reinforced. Often, people read just to enjoy a good story or to get a glimpse of how other people think and feel. But literature does much more than give us a compelling plot or a look into an author’s thoughts and emotions — although at its best it does these things as well. Literature explores the larger world and the ways in which people interact with that world and with one another. So even when what we read is entirely fictional, we nevertheless learn about real life. And, indeed, by affecting our thoughts and feelings, literature can indirectly affect our actions as well. Thus literature not only reflects but even helps to shape our world.

因此，文学不仅仅是信息性的，就像我们日常生活中阅读的很多东西一样。它经不起匆忙、分心或多任务的考验。它不是用来浏览或浏览的，因为我们要尽可能高效地寻找特定的事实或知识。相反，它是为持续阅读而设计的，这意味着为了公平起见，我们需要从头到尾阅读，并全神贯注地阅读。文学中最重要的东西很少被我们强调。我们必须用我们的智慧来弄清楚文学对我们的重要性，我们必须意识到，对于不同的读者来说，这种重要性可能有所不同。正因为如此，阅读文学作品有助于我们培养内省、持续关注和深度分析的技能，这些技能也可以帮助我们生活的其他领域。

Literature, then, is not merely informational, like so much of the reading we do in our everyday lives. It does not stand up well to haste, distractions, or multitasking. It is not meant to be browsed or skimmed as we search for particular facts or knowledge as efficiently as possible. Instead, it is designed for sustained reading, meaning that to do it justice we need to read it from beginning to end and give it our full attention for all that time. What is most important in literature is rarely highlighted for us. We must instead use our intelligence to figure out the significance the literature holds for us, and we must realize that this significance may be different for a different reader. Because of this, reading literature helps us develop the skills of introspection, sustained attention, and deep analysis, skills that can help us in other areas of our lives as well.

为什么要写文学？

Why write about literature?

即使是喜欢阅读诗歌、故事或戏剧的学生也并不总是喜欢写这些内容。有些人声称，分析文学作品会扼杀他们从好故事中找到的乐趣。对于其他人来说，写文学作品的任务似乎令人生畏、令人沮丧，或者只是枯燥乏味。如果你也有这些偏见，在我们考虑写文学作品的价值时，请试着把它们放在一边。

Even students who enjoy reading poems, stories, or plays do not always enjoy writing about them. Some claim that having to analyze literature kills the fun they find in a good story. For others, the task of writing about literature can seem intimidating, frustrating, or just plain dull. If you share any of these prejudices, try to put them aside while we consider the value of writing about literature.

文学写作需要一套特殊的知识和技能。当你写一篇故事、一首诗或一部戏剧时，你需要特别注意语言，即文学的媒介。这既能磨练分析能力，也能磨练创造力。在这种写作中，你还需要密切注意自己对语言的使用——就像你必须注意故事、诗歌或戏剧的语言一样——这样做可能会产生连锁反应，改善你的写作。因此，文学写作可以帮助你变得更有思想、更善于表达，更能让自己被听到和理解，显然这些品质可以改善你在文学课堂之外的生活。而且，文学写作非但不会扼杀阅读的乐趣，反而可以增加阅读的乐趣，当你看到自己写得如此精良的论文时，你会有一种成就感。

Writing about literature requires a special set of knowledge and skills. When you write about a story, a poem, or a play, you need to be particularly attentive to language, the medium of literature. This hones both analytical ability and creativity. In this sort of writing, you also need to pay close attention to your own use of language — just as you must pay attention to the language of the story, poem, or play — and doing so may have ripple effects that improve all your writing. Writing about literature, then, can help make you more thoughtful and articulate, better able to make yourself heard and understood, and obviously those are qualities that can improve your life well beyond the bounds of your literature classroom. And, far from killing the enjoyment of reading, writing about literature can increase that enjoyment and provide a sense of accomplishment as you look at the well-crafted paper that you’ve written.

文学写作也有助于我们理解现实世界。通过迫使我们整理思路，清晰地表达我们的想法，写作有助于我们理清我们所知道和相信的东西。它让我们有机会影响读者的思维。更重要的是，我们实际上是在边写边学。在写作过程中，我们经常会有新的发现，并在各种想法之间建立新的联系。我们会发现并解决思维中​​的矛盾，在努力从混乱的印象中理出线性的意义时，我们会创造出全新的思路。因此，虽然阅读文学可以教会我们很多关于世界的知识，但文学写作往往能教会我们关于自己的知识。

Writing about literature also helps in the real world. By forcing us to organize our thoughts and state clearly what we think, writing an essay helps us clarify what we know and believe. It gives us a chance to affect the thinking of our readers. Even more important, we actually learn as we write. In the process of writing, we often make new discoveries and forge new connections between ideas. We find and work through contradictions in our thinking, and we create whole new lines of thought as we work to make linear sense out of an often chaotic jumble of impressions. So, while reading literature can teach us much about the world, writing about literature often teaches us about ourselves.

文学课上应该期待什么

What to expect in a literature class

每个教室，就像任何环境中的每个群体一样，都是一个独特的世界，有自己的一套期望和社交互动。然而，大多数文学作品都有一些共同的特征。课程，可以被认为是大学文学课程的文化。

Every classroom, like every group of people in any setting, is its own unique world, with its own set of expectations and social interactions. However, there are certain features common to most literature classes, what might be considered the culture of a college or university literature class.

与校园里的其他课程不同，文学课并不是那种只要掌握了内容并且能够通过考试就可以随意出勤的课程。虽然你的课程可能有讲座部分，但几乎肯定会有大型讨论部分，即学生和老师之间就你读过的故事、诗歌和戏剧进行的交流。从某种意义上说，这些讨论是文学课中最重要的部分，无论你额外学习多少次或与同学分享笔记多少次都无法弥补缺课的损失。要跟上这些讨论，更不用说参与其中，你显然必须完成阅读。无论你的课程是否有规定的出勤政策，要想取得好成绩，你都需要到场并完成所有的阅读和写作作业——参与很重要。

Unlike some other classes on campus, a literature class is not the sort of class in which attendance is optional as long as you master the material and are able to pass the tests. Though your class may have a lecture component, it will almost certainly have a large discussion component as well, a give-and-take between students and instructor regarding the stories, poems, and plays you have read. In some ways, these discussions are the most important part of a literature class, and no amount of extra study on your own or sharing notes with a classmate can make up for having missed class. To follow these discussions, let alone to participate, you obviously will have to complete the reading. Whether or not your class has a stated attendance policy, to do well you need to be there and to be caught up with all reading and writing assignments — participation is important.

文学课上的讨论通常很有趣，因为没有两个人读完某篇文学作品后会有完全相同的印象。你可能不喜欢某个故事，但惊讶地发现大多数同学都喜欢它。一首诗可能会让你微笑，而你的一个同学却会哭泣。一个角色的动机对你来说可能很明显，但对其他人来说却令人困惑。这些差异的产生是因为每个读者都是独一无二的。因为你过着独特的生活，所以你对世界的了解与其他读者略有不同。你将这种个人历史和知识带到你的阅读中，连同你自己的思想和气质、你自己的好恶，甚至从过去的阅读中获得的所有知识。不同的观点在文学课上是有效的，每个读者都可以通过在课堂上发言来丰富对话。

Discussions in literature classes are usually interesting because no two people come away from a particular literary text with exactly the same impressions. You may dislike a particular story and be surprised to discover that most of your fellow students loved it. A poem may leave you smiling while it makes one of your classmates cry. A character’s motivation might seem obvious to you but baffle someone else. These differences arise because each reader is distinctive. Because you have lived a unique life, you have a knowledge of the world that is slightly different from any other reader’s. You bring this personal history and knowledge to your reading, along with your own mind and temperament, your own likes and dislikes, and even all the knowledge gained from your past reading. Differing opinions are valid in literature classes, and each reader is in a position to enrich the conversation by speaking up in class.

就像发言是参与的一部分一样，认真倾听也是参与的一部分。虽然认为你对文学作品的看法是合理的，但这并不意味着你只需要考虑自己的观点。倾听你的导师和同学的意见同样重要，尤其是当他们不同意你的观点时。如果你的立场有价值，那么他们的立场也有价值。也许他们看到了你错过的东西，或者他们认为你认为不重要的东西很重要。你可能会发现你的第一印象在讨论过程中发生了变化，或者你可能会发现你的第一印象越来越坚定。这两种结果都是你正在学习的好迹象。你在文学讨论中最重要的一点是愿意分享你自己的观点，同时保持向他人学习的开放态度。

Just as speaking up is part of participating, so, too, is attentive listening. While it is fair to regard your take on a piece of literature as valid, however, that doesn’t mean you need only consider your own opinions. Listening to what your instructor and classmates have to say is equally important, especially when they disagree with you. If your positions have value, so do theirs. Perhaps they have seen something you missed, or perhaps they consider crucial something that you had dismissed as unimportant. You may find your first impressions shifting during these discussions, or you may find them solidifying. Either of these outcomes is a good sign that you’re learning. The most important thing you bring to a literary discussion is a willingness to share your own perspectives while remaining open to the possibility of learning from others.

专心听讲的人往往是最擅长做笔记的人，而当你坐下来写论文时，拥有好的课堂笔记将非常有帮助。下一章将介绍这一重要技能。

Attentive listeners tend to make the best note-takers, and having good class notes will prove incredibly helpful when you sit down to write your papers. This important skill will be covered in the next chapter.

文学与享受

Literature and enjoyment

您可能已经注意到，到目前为止，很少有人谈论阅读和写作文学作品也可以很有趣。有些学生真的很喜欢阅读富有想象力的文学作品并撰写论文。如果您属于这一类，那么您很幸运；您的文学课会很有趣，而且——并非偶然——您可能会在课程中取得好成绩。但是，如果您从来都不喜欢阅读和写作文学作品，那么您可以花一点时间思考为什么您的一些同学喜欢这种工作，以及您可以做些什么来增加自己对文学的享受和对写作过程的投入。如果您能抛开以前在文学和写作方面可能遇到的任何负面经历，并以积极的心态对待您的任务，您会更快乐，写出更好的论文。当您接触到新作者、新角色和新场景以及新想法时，您的文学课可能会让您感到惊讶。它甚至可能成为您的最爱。

You may have noticed that little has been said so far about the idea that reading and writing about literature can also be fun. Some students really enjoy reading imaginative literature and writing papers about it. If you’re in that group, you’re lucky; your literature class will be fun and interesting for you, and — not incidentally — you’ll probably do good work in the course. If you’ve never been fond of reading and writing about literature, though, you might spend a little time thinking about why some of your classmates enjoy this sort of work as well as what you might do to increase your own enjoyment of literature and investment in the writing process. You’ll be happier and write better papers if you can put aside any previous negative experiences with literature and writing you may have had and approach your task with a positive mind-set. As you are introduced to new authors, new characters and settings, and new ideas, your literature class may surprise you. It could even end up being a favorite.

重读的价值

The value of rereading

最好的阅读往往是重读，最好的读者是那些愿意反复回头重读文学作品的人。专业文学评论家——毕竟，他们是最熟练的读者之一——在他们觉得有能力写出一篇作品之前，阅读一首特定的诗歌、一个故事或一个戏剧几十遍并不罕见。写得好的文学作品会奖励这种重读的意愿，让读者在每次阅读中不断发现新的东西。如果你有一本你一遍又一遍地读的最爱的书，或者一首你喜欢一遍又一遍地听的最爱的歌，你本能地理解这个道理。当然，现实中，在课堂上讨论或准备写作之前，你没有时间把每一篇指定的作品读很多遍，但如果你在第一次阅读时没有“理解”一篇文学作品，你不应该放弃或感到沮丧。如果这样做有助于你的理解，那就准备好回头重读关键章节，甚至整部作品。

The best reading is often rereading, and the best readers are those who are willing to go back and reread a piece of literature again and again. It is not uncommon for professional literary critics — who are, after all, some of the most skilled readers — to read a particular poem, story, or play literally dozens of times before they feel equipped to write about it. And well-written literature rewards this willingness to reread, allowing readers to continue seeing new things with each reading. If you have a favorite book you return to over and over, or a favorite song you like to listen to again and again, you intuitively understand this truth. Realistically, of course, you will not have the time to read every assigned piece many times before discussing it in class or preparing to write about it, but you should not give up or feel frustrated if you fail to “get” a piece of literature on the first reading. Be prepared to go back and reread key sections, or even a whole work, if doing so could help with your understanding.

批判性阅读

Critical reading

最适合想象性文学作品（或其他任何复杂作品）的阅读方式有时被称为主动阅读或批判性阅读，尽管批判性阅读在这里不是指挑毛病，而是指深思熟虑。我们日常生活中的许多阅读都是被动和非批判性的。我们看路牌以了解自己身在何处；我们查看体育网站以了解自己喜欢的球队的表现；我们阅读包装以获取有关所用产品的信息。一般来说，我们被动地接受所有这些信息，而不会质疑或寻找更深层的含义。对于许多类型的阅读来说，这是完全合适的。问“为什么是松树街？”或“他们说这个罐子里有十二盎司苏打水是什么意思？”几乎没有意义。然而，还有另一种阅读方式，它涉及提出批判性问题并更深入地探究我们所读内容的含义。这种阅读方式最适合想象性文学作品（尤其是如果我们打算以后讨论或撰写该文学作品）。

The sort of reading that works best with imaginative literature — or any other complex writing — is sometimes called active reading or critical reading, though critical here implies not fault-finding but rather thoughtful consideration. Much of the reading we do in everyday life is passive and noncritical. We glance at street signs to see where we are; we check a sports website to find out how our favorite team is doing; we read packages for information about the products we use. And in general, we take in all this information passively, without questioning it or looking for deeper meaning. For many kinds of reading, this is perfectly appropriate. It would hardly make sense to ask, “Why is this Pine Street?” or “What do they mean when they say there are twelve ounces of soda in this can?” There is, however, another type of reading, one that involves asking critical questions and probing more deeply into the meaning of what we read. This is the kind of reading most appropriate to imaginative literature (especially if we intend to discuss or write about that literature later).

“隐藏含义”的神话

The myth of “hidden meaning”

文学课上一直流传着一个错误观念，即阅读的目的是从文本中寻找“隐藏的含义”。不要被这个观念所欺骗。事实上，许多教师不喜欢“隐藏的含义”这个短语，因为它有令人不快和不准确的含义。首先，它暗示作者故意装模作样，故意让自己的作品难以理解或排斥读者。其次，它让阅读过程听起来像是在挖掘宝藏，而不是一个系统的智力过程。最后，这个短语暗示文本只有一个真实的含义，交流和理解只朝一个方向进行：从狡猾的作者到探索的读者。

There is a persistent myth in literature classes that the purpose of reading is to scour a text for “hidden meaning.” Do not be taken in by this myth. In fact, many instructors dislike the phrase hidden meaning, which has unpleasant and inaccurate connotations. First, it suggests a sort of willful subterfuge on the part of the author, a deliberate attempt to make his or her work difficult to understand or to exclude the reader. Second, it makes the process of reading sound like digging for buried treasure rather than a systematic intellectual process. Finally, the phrase implies that a text has a single, true meaning and that communication and understanding move in one direction only: from the crafty author to the searching reader.

事实上，文学文本中的含义并非隐藏，而你作为读者的工作不是去寻找它们。相反，如果你不能立即理解一段文本，那是因为你需要更积极地阅读，然后当你与文本合作以创建一致的解释时，意义就会在协作的努力中浮现出来。（这是读者反应批评的基础，在第 147-148 页进行了解释。）显然，积极阅读需要付出努力。如果你发现这种阅读很难，那就把它当作一个好兆头。这意味着你正在给予精心创作的诗歌、故事或戏剧对读者的要求的那种关注。你也不应该认为英语老师有一把钥匙，可以让他们解开文本的一个秘密真相。如果你的老师在一篇文学作品中看到的含义比你多或不同，这是因为他或她受过积极阅读的训练，可能比你花在文学作品上的时间要多得多，花在分配给你的特定文本上的时间也更多。

In truth, the meanings in literary texts are not hidden, and your job as a reader is not to root around for them. Rather, if a text is not immediately accessible to you, it is because you need to read more actively, and meaning will then emerge in a collaborative effort as you work with the text to create a consistent interpretation. (This is the basis of reader-response criticism, which is explained on pages 147–148.) Obviously, active reading requires effort. If you find this sort of reading hard, take that as a good sign. It means you’re paying the sort of attention that a well-crafted poem, story, or play requires of a reader. You also should not assume that English teachers have a key that allows them to unlock the one secret truth of a text. If, as is often the case, your instructor sees more or different meanings in a piece of literature than you do, this is because he or she is trained to read actively and has probably spent much more time than you have with literature in general and more time with the particular text assigned to you.

积极阅读

Active reading

注释

Annotating

如果主动阅读的第一个建议是放慢速度，并知道需要进行第二次（甚至第三次）阅读，那么下一个建议是手拿钢笔或铅笔阅读，以便注释文本并做笔记。如果你看看你的导师或高级文学学生的文学教科书，你很可能会看到一些混乱的东西——单词和段落被圈出或划线，评论和问题潦草地写在页边空白处（技术上称为旁注），以及装饰页面的无法解释的标点符号或其他符号。你不应该将此解释为对文本或作者的不尊重，或思维混乱的表现。这只是文本注释，意味着有人一直在积极阅读。一个极端的例子可能是诗人和评论家塞缪尔·泰勒·柯尔律治，他不仅注释自己的书，还注释从朋友那里借来的书——这种习惯不太可能获得友谊——他的旁注实际上构成了他的整整一卷文集。

If the first suggestions for active reading are to slow down and to know that a second (or even a third) reading is in order, the next suggestion is to read with a pen or pencil in hand in order to annotate your text and take notes. If you look inside a literature textbook belonging to your instructor or to an advanced literature student, chances are you’ll see something of a mess — words and passages circled or underlined, comments and questions scrawled in the margins (technically called marginalia), and unexplained punctuation marks or other symbols decorating the pages. You should not interpret this as disrespect for the text or author or as a sign of a disordered mind. It is simply textual annotation, and it means that someone has been engaged in active reading. Perhaps an extreme example is the poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was famous for annotating not only his own books but also those he borrowed from friends — a habit unlikely to secure a friendship — and his marginalia actually make up one entire volume of his collected works.

如果你不熟悉文本注释，可能不知道从哪里开始。没有单一、广泛使用的注释系统，你几乎肯定会在练习主动阅读时开始开发自己的技巧。不过，这里有一些提示可以帮助你入门：

If you are not accustomed to textual annotation, it may be hard to know where to begin. There is no single, widely used system of annotation, and you will almost certainly begin to develop your own techniques as you practice active reading. Here, however, are a few tips to get you started:

• 划线、圈出或突出显示您认为特别重要的段落。这些段落可以是单个单词，也可以是整个段落——但要坚持文本中真正突出的要点，越简短、越具体越好。不要担心您需要找到诗歌、戏剧或故事中最重要的部分。每个人对事物的看法都略有不同，所以只需记下给您留下深刻印象的内容即可。
• Underline, circle, or highlight passages that strike you as particularly important. These may be anything from single words to whole paragraphs — but stick to those points in the text that really stand out, the briefer and more specific, the better. Don’t worry that you need to find the most crucial parts of a poem, play, or story. Everyone sees things a little differently, so just note what makes an impression on you.
• 在页边空白处记下为什么某些观点会打动你。不要只是划线；至少在页边空白处记下一两个词，以提醒自己当你选择强调某个特定观点时你在想什么。现在对你来说，这似乎很明显，但当你两周后回到文本写论文时，你可能就记不住了。
• Make notes in the margins as to why certain points strike you. Don’t just underline; jot down at least a word or two in the margin to remind yourself what you were thinking when you chose to highlight a particular point. It may seem obvious to you at the moment, but when you return to the text in two weeks to write your paper, you may not remember.
• 对文本提出问题。主动阅读最重要的方面可能是对文本提出批判性问题的练习。没有人——即使是最有经验的文学评论家——能立即理解文学文本的所有内容，而指出你感到困惑或怀疑的地方是解决任何困惑的重要第一步。下面针对每种类型提供了各种类型的问题，但第一次阅读时，请记住，任何令人困惑的地方都是可以提出的，从人物动机（ “她为什么要这样做？”），到文化或历史参考（“Xanadu 在哪里？”），再到单个单词的定义（“含义？”）。很可能，你最终会想要提出一些可能的答案，但在第一次阅读文本时，只要注意到你有问题就足够了。
• Ask questions of the text. Perhaps the most important aspect of active reading is the practice of asking critical questions of a text. Nobody — not even the most experienced literary critic — understands everything about a literary text immediately, and noting where you are confused or doubtful is an important first step toward resolving any confusion. Types of questions are offered below for each genre, but upon first reading just remember that any point of confusion is fair game, from character motivation (“Why would she do that?”), to cultural or historical references (“Where is Xanadu?”) or to the definitions of individual words (“Meaning?”). Most likely, you will eventually want to propose some possible answers, but on a first reading of the text it’s enough to note that you have questions.
• 反驳文本。有时，文学文本中的某些内容可能会让你觉得可疑、冒犯或完全错误。仅仅因为一个故事、诗歌或戏剧出现在教科书中并不意味着其作者无可指责。尽量保持开放的心态，意识到可能存在一种解释可以满足你的批评，但如果你认为作者犯了错误，不要害怕写下你的观点。
• Talk back to the text. Occasionally, something in a literary text may strike you as suspicious, offensive, or just plain wrong. Just because a story, poem, or play appears in a textbook does not mean that its author is above criticism. Try to keep an open mind and realize that there may be an explanation that would satisfy your criticism, but if you think an author has made a misstep, don’t be afraid to make note of your opinion.
• 寻找语言的不寻常特征。在营造氛围和表达观点时，文学作品比纯信息文本更依赖语言特征，如风格和意象。因此，作为文学读者，你需要提高对风格的认识。寻找图像模式、重复的单词或短语以及任何其他不寻常的风格特征——直至独特的语法或标点符号——并在旁注中记下它们。
• Look for unusual features of language. In creating a mood and making a point, literary works rely much more heavily than do purely informational texts on features of language such as style and imagery. As a reader of literature, then, you need to heighten your awareness of style. Look for patterns of images, repeated words or phrases, and any other unusual stylistic features — right down to idiosyncratic grammar or punctuation — and make note of them in your marginalia.
• 开发自己的速记系统。注释文本虽然显然需要时间，但不应成为负担或减慢阅读速度，因此请保持注释和问题简短明了。有时，您只需要一个感叹号来表示重要段落。带下划线的术语与页边处的问号相结合可以提醒您，您没有立即理解某个单词的意思。要有创意，但也要保持一致，这样您以后就会知道某个特定符号或注释的意思。
• Develop your own system of shorthand. Annotating a text, while it obviously takes time, shouldn’t become a burden or slow your reading too much, so keep your notes and questions short and to the point. Sometimes all you need is an exclamation point to indicate an important passage. An underlined term combined with a question mark in the margin can remind you that you didn’t immediately understand what a word meant. Be creative, but try also to be consistent so you’ll know later what you meant by a particular symbol or comment.

学生 Rachel McCarthy 被要求朗读威廉·巴特勒·叶芝的诗歌《第二次降临》。以下是她在朗读这首诗时所做的一些注释：

Student Rachel McCarthy was assigned to read William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming.” Here are some of the annotations she made as she read the poem:

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝（1865–1939）

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS [1865–1939]

第二次降临

Rachel 的注释涵盖了所有内容，从主要内容点（例如叶芝对狮身人面像的暗示和gyre的定义），到她对叶芝在第二节中使用重复的观察。通过这种方式注释这首诗，Rachel 已准备好参与课堂和在线讨论，后来当她决定写一篇关于这首诗的论文时，她有了一些很好的起始笔记。

Rachel’s annotations cover everything from major points of content, like Yeats’s allusion to the sphinx and the definition of gyre, to her observations on Yeats’s use of repetition in the second stanza. Having annotated the poem in this way, Rachel was ready to participate in discussions both in the classroom and online, and later she had some good starting notes when she decided to write a paper about the poem.

提出文学批判性问题

Asking critical questions of literature

关于文学的问题分为四类：关于文本的问题、关于作者的问题、关于作品的文化背景的问题以及关于读者的问题。我们将在接下来的几页中逐一讨论这些问题。

Questions about literature fall into one of four categories — questions about the text, about the author, about the cultural context of the work, and about the reader. We’ll discuss each of these in the next few pages.

关于经文的问题

Questions about the Text

关于文本的问题主要集中在体裁、结构、语言和风格等方面。关于文本的疑问有时（但并非总是）可以通过更深入地研究手头的故事、诗歌或戏剧来回答。你可以询问某些图像的存在——或者它们的缺失，如果你有理由期待它们出现，却发现它们并不在那里。有时作者会以令人吃惊或出乎意料的方式并置图像或语言，你可以询问这种并置的目的和效果。你可能会对作品上下文中特定单词的含义感到疑惑。（对于较古老的文学作品尤其如此，因为含义会随着时间而演变和变化，你今天知道的词在过去可能有非常不同的定义。）当看一首诗时，你可以询问声音、节奏、韵律等的目的和效果。

Questions about a text focus on issues such as genre, structure, language, and style. Queries regarding the text can sometimes, though not always, be answered with a deeper examination of the story, poem, or play at hand. You might ask about the presence of certain images — or about their absence, if you have reason to expect them and find that they are not there. Sometimes authors juxtapose images or language in startling or unexpected ways, and you might ask about the purpose and effect of such juxtaposition. You might wonder about the meanings of specific words in the context of the work. (This is especially true with older works of literature, as meanings evolve and change over time, and a word you know today might have had a very different definition in the past.) When looking at a poem, you might inquire about the purpose and effect of sound, rhythm, rhyme, and so forth.

你以前的经历会对你有很大帮助，包括你阅读文学作品的经历和日常生活中的经历。从个人经历中，你知道自己期望人们在特定情况下会如何思考和行动，你可以将这些期望与文学作品进行比较。什么可能促使人物或人物像他们那样思考和行动？你以前的阅读也为你设定了期望。文本如何满足或挫败了这些期望？这让你想起了哪些其他文学作品？哪些图像看起来引人注目或出乎意料？哪些文字看起来特别有力、奇怪或值得注意？

Your previous experiences are a big help here, including both your experiences of reading literature and your experiences in everyday life. You know from personal experience how you expect people to think and act in certain situations, and you can compare these expectations to the literature. What might motivate the characters or persons to think and act as they do? Your previous reading has likewise set up expectations for you. How does the text fulfill or frustrate these expectations? What other literary pieces does this remind you of? What images seem arresting or unexpected? Where do the words seem particularly powerful, strange, or otherwise noteworthy?

请注意一位读者在第一次阅读本·琼森的《我的第一个儿子》时在注释中提出的一些问题。

Notice some of the questions one reader asked in his annotations upon first reading Ben Jonson’s “On My First Son.”

本·琼森（1572–1637）

BEN JONSON [1572–1637]

关于我的第一个儿子

学生对诗歌提出的问题大部分都是实质性的和困难的，需要大量的思考和解释才能得到答案。这些问题可以引发良好的讨论和写作。

The questions the student asks of the poem are, for the most part, substantial and difficult, and they will require a good deal of thinking and interpretation to get to an answer. These are the sorts of questions that prompt good discussions and good writing.

写前准备

Prewriting

写作前准备是您在开始实际撰写论文草稿之前所做的一切。它包括注释和质疑文本、做笔记和参与课堂活动以及与您的导师和/或同学讨论作业。它还包括本章中涵盖的特定主题：选择主题、提出论点和论点、收集支持以及提出论文的组织策略。

Prewriting is everything that you do before beginning an actual draft of your paper. It includes annotating and questioning texts, taking notes and participating in class, and discussing the assignment with your instructor and/or classmates. It also includes specific topics covered in this chapter: choosing a topic, developing an argument and a thesis, gathering support, and proposing a paper’s organizational strategy.

论文

The thesis

因此，要开始撰写文学论证，你必须采取立场并提出要点。这个主要要点将成为你论文的论点。区分主题和论点很重要；你的主题是你将关注的问题或领域，而你的论点是关于这个主题的陈述。

To begin writing a literary argument, then, you must take a position and have a point to make. This principal point will be the thesis of your paper. It is important to distinguish between a topic and a thesis; your topic is the issue or area upon which you will focus your attention, and your thesis is a statement about this topic.

以下是学生日记中威廉·巴特勒·叶芝的《第二次降临》主题的一个例子：

Here is an example of a topic for William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming” from a student journal:

主题：我对叶芝如何运用《启示录》的意象很感兴趣。

Topic: I am interested in how Yeats uses imagery of the Apocalypse.

以下是关于此主题的论文论点陈述的示例：

Here is an example of a thesis statement for a paper on this topic:

论点：“第二次降临”打破了基督教的启示录模型，从而挑战读者去面对一个令人不安的前景，即我们现在所理解的世界将很快面临彻底的毁灭。

Thesis: “The Second Coming” disrupts Christian models of the Apocalypse, and in doing so challenges the reader to grapple with the uncomfortable prospect that the world as we understand it right now will soon face utter annihilation.

将您的论点表述为一个完整的句子可能会有所帮助，其中主题是主语，后面跟着一个谓语，该谓语对您的主题做出肯定的陈述或主张。这是您的论文陈述，它可能会出现在论文的开头。因此，论文的首要目的是解释、辩护并最终证明其论点的真实性。

It might help to phrase your thesis as a complete sentence in which the topic is the subject, followed by a predicate that makes a firm statement or claim regarding your topic. This is your thesis statement, and it will probably appear toward the beginning of your paper. The foremost purpose of a paper, then, is to explain, defend, and ultimately prove the truth of its thesis.

在思考论文的初步论点时，请牢记以下准则：

Keep the following guidelines in mind as you think about a tentative thesis for your paper:

• 你的论文应该既清晰又具体。论文的目的是为读者和作者提供指导，因此它需要通俗易懂，并明确指出你将要讨论的文献的具体方面。
• Your thesis should be both clear and specific. The purpose of a thesis is to serve as a guide to both the reader and the writer, so it needs to be understandable and to point clearly to the specific aspects of the literature that you will discuss.
• 你的论文应该具有相关性。你提出的主张不仅应该引起你作为一名作家的兴趣，还应该激发读者的兴趣和了解更多信息的欲望，让他们有理由继续阅读。当然，并不是每篇论文都能改变生活或思想，但你至少应该以一种让读者不会产生最可怕的反应的方式来陈述你的论文：“谁在乎？”
• Your thesis should be relevant. The claim you make should not only interest you as a writer but also give your reader a reason to keep reading by sparking his or her interest and desire to know more. Not every paper is going to change lives or minds, of course, but you should at least state your thesis in such a way that your reader won’t have the most dreaded of responses: “Who cares?”
• 你的论点应该具有争议性。由于论证性论文的目的是说服读者你的论点是正确的（或者至少有价值），所以它不能仅仅是一个无可辩驳的事实。一个好的论点应该是理性的人在阅读文献后可能会不同意或根本没有考虑过的东西。它应该给你一些证据。
• Your thesis should be debatable. Since the purpose of an argumentative paper is to convince a reader that your thesis is correct (or at least that it has merit), it cannot simply be an irrefutable fact. A good thesis will be something that a reasonable person, having read the literature, might disagree with or might not have considered at all. It should give you something to prove.
• 你的论文应该是原创的。同样，原创并不意味着你写的每篇论文都必须是只有你才能发现的璀璨宝石。但它应该是你独立思考过的东西，应该避免陈词滥调，包含一些你自己的东西，而不是重复你在课堂上说过的东西或教科书中写的东西。
• Your thesis should be original. Again, originality does not imply that every thesis you write must be a brilliant gem that nobody but you could have discovered. But it should be something you have thought about independently, and it should avoid clichés, contain something of you, and do more than parrot back something said in your class or written in your textbook.
• 你应该能够用一个完整的句子来陈述你的论点。这个句子，通常称为论文陈述，应该首先确定你的主题，然后对其提出主张。（有时，特别是对于较长的论文，其背后有更复杂的想法，你需要不止一个句子来清楚地陈述你的论点。但即使在这些情况下，完整的论文也必须既确定主题，又对其提出主张。）
• You should be able to state your thesis as a complete sentence. This sentence, generally referred to as the thesis statement, should first identify your topic and then make a claim about it. (Occasionally, especially for longer papers with more complex ideas behind them, you will need more than one sentence to state your thesis clearly. Even in these cases, though, the complete thesis must both identify the topic and make a claim about it.)
• 你的论点应该用有力、明确的语言来陈述。避免使用“在本文中，我将证明……”、“在我看来……”或“我认为……”等引导性短语，如果你有一个观点需要证明，那就证明它。让读者专注于主题。这样的语言会削弱你的句子。
• Your thesis should be stated in strong, unambiguous language. Avoid lead-up phrases like “In this paper, I will prove …,” “In my opinion …,” or “I think …,” If you have a point to prove, just prove it. Keep the reader focused on the topic. Language like this weakens your sentence.
• 你的论文应该适合作业。这似乎很明显，但当我们研究文献、做笔记、提出问题并开始思考主题和论文时，可能会忽略作业的呈现方式。在你提出一个初步的论文后，最好回头检查一下导师布置的作业，确保你的论文符合作业的要求。
• Your thesis should be appropriate to the assignment. This may seem obvious, but as we work with literature, taking notes, asking questions, and beginning to think about topics and theses, it is possible to lose sight of the assignment as it was presented. After you have come up with a tentative thesis, it’s a good idea to go back and review the assignment as your instructor gave it, making sure your paper will fulfill its requirements.

让我们来看看两位学生是如何为他们的论文提出有力、可行的论点的。雷切尔·麦卡锡知道她想写威廉·巴特勒·叶芝如何处理诗歌中的意象。然而，她第一次尝试的论点太过薄弱和笼统：

Let us take a look at how two students arrived at strong, workable theses for their papers. Rachel McCarthy knew that she wanted to write about how William Butler Yeats dealt with imagery in his poetry. Her first attempt at a thesis, however, was far too weak and general:

叶芝的诗歌包含一些历史上最令人难忘的意象。

Yeats’s poems feature some of the most haunting imagery ever written.

这与其说是一篇论文陈述，不如说是一种观察和观点。从阅读中我们只知道雷切尔对叶芝的强大形象很感兴趣。她需要一个更具体、更有争议的论文：

This is not so much a thesis statement as an observation and opinion. All we know from reading it is that Rachel is interested in Yeats’s powerful imagery. She needs a thesis that is both more specific and more controversial:

叶芝的诗歌以非常规的方式运用了世界末日的意象。

Yeats’s poems use imagery of the apocalypse in unconventional ways.

这个版本稍微好一点，因为它更加集中，但 Rachel 还没有说出任何有争议的内容。以下是 Rachel 论文的最终版本：

This version is a little better because it is more focused, but Rachel hasn’t said anything contestable yet. Here is the final version of Rachel’s thesis:

保罗·迪恩认为，叶芝的“扩大的螺旋”是历史变迁的隐喻，揭示了诗歌中潜在的统一性；然而，我认为，在《第二次降临》中，叶芝使用了不团结和混乱的意象，以营造“第二次降临”的恐怖感，从而利用了读者对未知的恐惧。

Paul Deane suggests that Yeats’s “widening gyre” is a metaphor for historical change that reveals an underlying unity in the poem; however, I would argue that in “The Second Coming,” Yeats uses imagery of disunity and chaos in order to create a feeling of horror of “The Second Coming,” thus exploiting readers’ fears of the unknown.

这里我们有一个更强有力的论点。它通过专注于一首诗来限制论文的范围，它提出了与学术来源不同的断言，并说明了为什么这一点对读者很重要（因为我们可能想了解叶芝是如何设想启示录的）。

Here we have a much stronger thesis. It limits the paper’s scope by focusing on a single poem, it makes an assertion that differs from a scholarly source, and it shows why this point is significant to a reader (because we might want to understand how Yeats envisioned the Apocalypse).

这是提炼和发展论点过程的另一个例子。当梅兰妮·史密斯第一次决定写两个十九世纪故事中的男性角色时，她提出了以下论点：

Here is one more example of the process of refining and developing a thesis. When she first decided to write about the male characters in two nineteenth-century stories, Melanie Smith came up with the following thesis:

夏洛特·帕金斯·吉尔曼的《黄色壁纸》和凯特·肖邦的《一小时的故事》中的故事，丈夫对妻子的控制欲很强。

The husbands in the stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin are very controlling of their wives.

这个论点不够充分，因为它只是陈述事实，任何读过这些故事的人都会立即明白这一点。梅兰妮没有理由为之辩护，也没有理由证明这一点，所以她再思考了一下，完善了她的暂定论点：

This is not an adequate thesis because it is simply a statement of fact, something that will be immediately obvious to anyone who has read the stories. It left Melanie with nothing to defend, no point to prove, so she gave it a little more thought and refined her tentative thesis:

尽管《黄色壁纸》和《一小时的故事》中的丈夫控制欲很强，但实际上他们并不像表面上看起来那么糟糕。

Though the husbands in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of an Hour” are controlling, they are not really as bad as they first appear.

此时，作者肯定是朝着正确的方向前进了。这个版本表明她有特定的解释和观点，不一定每个读过这些故事的人都认同这一点。然而，它仍然没有给读者太多关于论文内容的指导。最后，梅兰妮需要两句话来正确阐述她的论点：

At this point, the writer is definitely moving in the right direction. This version shows that she has a particular interpretation and a point to make, one that is not necessarily shared by everyone who reads the stories. However, it still doesn’t give a reader much guidance about what to expect in the paper. In the end, Melanie needed two sentences to get her thesis right:

以现代标准来看，两位主人公的丈夫，尤其是《黄色壁纸》中的约翰，似乎对妻子的控制力几乎令人难以忍受。然而，从十九世纪末的角度来看，他们的行为却截然不同。

By modern standards, the husbands of the two protagonists, particularly John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” seem almost unbearably controlling of their wives. From the vantage point of the late nineteenth century, however, their behavior looks quite different.

这个版本更清晰、更精确。读完这篇论文后，我们的注意力更加集中，对整篇论文的内容有了很好的了解。（请参阅第 81-83 页的 Melanie 完整论文。）

This version is much clearer and more precise. After reading this thesis, we are much more focused and have a good sense of what to expect in the paper as a whole. (See pages 81–83 for Melanie’s full essay.)

你会注意到，在这次讨论中，短语“暂定论点”出现了好几次。暂定这个词很重要。当你开始收集支持并撰写论文时，你的论点将帮助你明确地专注于你的任务，并找出你的想法、观察和问题中哪些与手头的项目相关。但你也应该保持开放的心态，意识到你的论点可能会随着你的写作而演变。你可能会以微妙或不那么微妙的方式改变焦点，你甚至可能在写作时完全改变主意，因此需要从头开始创建一个新的论点。如果发生这种情况，不要认为这是失败。相反，这意味着你成功地从写作经验中学到了一些真正的东西，这就是文学课程的意义所在。

You will note that in this discussion the phrase tentative thesis has come up several times. The word tentative is important. As you start to gather support and to write your paper, your thesis will help you focus clearly on your task and sort out which of your ideas, observations, and questions are relevant to the project at hand. But you should keep an open mind as well, realizing that your thesis is likely to evolve as you write. You are likely to change the focus in subtle or not so subtle ways, and you might even change your mind completely as you write and therefore need to create a new thesis from scratch. If this happens, don’t regard it as a failure. On the contrary, it means you have succeeded in learning something genuine from the experience of writing, and that is what a literature course is all about.

整理你的论文

Organizing your paper

确定要使用的证据后，就该开始对其进行分类和组织了。组织任何论文的原则都是段落的顺序，因此在此阶段，您应该在段落内容层面进行思考。请记住，每个段落都应包含一个主要思想以及足够的证据和解释来支持该思想。这些段落级思想加在一起，会引导读者找到论文的最终要点——您的论点。因此，组织论文内容的第一步是将类似的想法聚集在一起，以开始塑造各个段落的内容。第二阶段是确定这些段落出现的顺序。

Once you’ve determined what evidence to use, it is time to begin sorting and organizing it. The principle for organizing any paper is the sequence of paragraphs, so at this stage you should be thinking at the level of paragraph content. Remember that each paragraph should contain one main idea and sufficient evidence and explanation to support that idea. When added together, these paragraph-level ideas lead a reader to your paper’s ultimate point — your thesis. So the first stage of organizing the content of your essay is to cluster together similar ideas in order to begin shaping the substance of individual paragraphs. The second stage is to determine the order in which these paragraphs will appear.

对于大多数作家来说，创建某种大纲是完成将证据组织成论文逻辑顺序任务的最佳方法。过去，你可能被要求写一个正式的大纲，包括罗马数字和大写字母。如果这种方法有助于组织你的想法，请继续使用它。然而，对于许多作家来说，非正式的大纲同样有效，而且不那么麻烦。要构建一个非正式的大纲，只需记下一个标题，总结你打算写的每个段落的主题。然后将你收集的证据——文献中的引文或释义、分析的想法等等——归类到标题下的组中。

For most writers, creating some version of an outline is the best way to approach the task of organizing evidence into a logical sequence for a paper. In the past, you may have been asked to write a formal outline, complete with roman numerals and capital letters. If this technique has been helpful in organizing your thoughts, by all means continue to use it. For many writers, however, an informal outline works just as well and is less cumbersome. To construct an informal outline, simply jot down a heading that summarizes the topic of each paragraph you intend to write. Then cluster your gathered evidence — quotations or paraphrases from the literature, ideas for analysis, and so on — into groups under the headings.

以下是莎士比亚第 116 首十四行诗论文的非正式大纲示例。（完整论文见第 95-97 页。）在此大纲中，学生重点关注诗中的积极和消极语言，以及它如何得出比他在其他爱情诗中看到的更有趣的爱情定义。

The following is an example of an informal outline for a paper on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116. (The full paper appears on pages 95–97.) In this outline, the student focuses on the positive and negative language in the poem and how it results in a more interesting definition of love than he had seen in other love poems.

• 介绍
  • 两种典型的爱情诗：快乐和悲伤
  • 十四行诗 116 更加复杂和有趣
  • 暂定论点：这首十四行诗通过包含消极和积极的形象和语言，对爱情给出了复杂而现实的定义。
• 诗中生动的形象
  • 正面/预期：“明星”、“永恒的印记”、“红润的嘴唇和脸颊”
  • 负面/意外：“镰刀”（死亡）、“流浪的树皮”（迷失的船）、“暴风雨”
• 负面语言
  • 单词/短语：“让我不要”、“爱不是”、“从不”、“也不”、“不”等。
  • 抽象：“改变”、“障碍”、“错误”
• 结论
  • 爱永远不会改变
  • 莎士比亚的定义在 400 年后仍然适用

• Introduction
  • Two kinds of typical love poems: happy and sad
  • Sonnet 116 is more complex and interesting
  • Tentative thesis: By including both negative and positive images and language, this sonnet gives a complex and realistic definition of love.
• Vivid images in poem
  • Positive/expected: “star,” “ever-fixèd mark,” “rosy lips and cheeks”
  • Negative/unexpected: “sickle” (deathlike), “wandering bark” (lost boat), “tempests”
• Negative language
  • Words/phrases: “Let me not,” “Love is not,” “never,” “nor,” “no,” etc.
  • Abstractions: “alteration,” “impediments,” “error”
• Conclusion
  • Love never changes
  • Shakespeare’s definition still works some 400 years later

显然，这不是正式的提纲。但它确实将类似的项目和想法归类在一起，并为作者提供了一个基本结构，供他遵循，以便进入写作过程的下一个阶段——草稿。

Obviously, this is not a formal outline. It does, however, group similar items and ideas together, and it gives the writer a basic structure to follow as he moves on to drafting, the next stage of the composing process.

起草论文

Drafting the paper

总结一下，你有一个主题、一个暂定论点、收集的证据，以及上述证据的大纲或暂定结构。现在是时候开始写初稿了。每个作家都有自己略有不同的写作过程。有些人从论文的开头开始，以清晰、有条理的方式一直写到结尾。其他人从第一个正文段落开始，把引言留到以后。还有一些人把论文的零碎部分乱序写，让整体结构在以后显现出来。

To recap, you have a topic, a tentative thesis, gathered evidence, and an outline or tentative structure in mind for said evidence. It is time to begin writing your first draft. Every writer has his or her own slightly different process for getting the words down on paper. Some begin at the beginning of the paper and work straight through to the end in a clear, organized fashion. Others begin with the first body paragraph and save the introduction for later. Still others write bits and pieces of the paper out of order and allow the overall structure to emerge at a later time.

有些作家声称，他们在最后一分钟工作得更好，在迫在眉睫的最后期限的压力下注意力会更集中。然而，这几乎总是为马虎的工作习惯找借口，拖延很少甚至永远不会带来优秀的论文。当习惯性拖延者改变他们的工作方法，给自己更多的时间在一个项目上时，他们经常会惊讶地发现这个过程更令人愉快，他们努力的最终成果比他们过去所做的更好。早点开始，稳步工作——事实证明这是值得的。

Some writers claim that they work better at the last minute and focus better under the pressure of a looming deadline. This, however, is almost always a justification for sloppy work habits, and procrastination rarely if ever results in a superior paper. When habitual procrastinators change their working methods and give themselves more time on a project, they are frequently surprised to discover that the process is more enjoyable and the final product of their efforts better than what they have produced in the past. Start early and work steadily — it will prove more than worth it.

尝试快速撰写初稿。你不需要把每个句子都写得恰到好处——这就是写作的修改阶段的目的。你现在要做的只是把尽可能多的好的原始材料混合在一起，看看哪些是可行的。不要太担心风格、过渡、语法等等。事实上，你甚至不需要从头开始，也不需要一直写到结尾。如果你在某一部分卡住了，那就继续写。你随时可以回来，稍后再填补空白。引言可能特别棘手，特别是因为你还没有完成文章，也不知道你要介绍的是什么。一些作家发现从文章的主体开始更容易，或者写一个简短、草率的引言作为占位符。草稿完成后，你可以回去写真正的引言。

Try writing your first draft fairly quickly. You don’t need to get every sentence just right — that’s what the revision phase of writing is for. What you want now is just to get as much good raw material as possible into the mix and see what works. Don’t worry too much yet about style, transitions, grammar, and so forth. In fact, you don’t even need to start at the beginning or work right through to the end. If you get stuck on one part, move on. You can always come back and fill in the gaps later. Introductions can be especially tricky, particularly since you haven’t yet finished the essay and don’t really know what it is you’re introducing. Some writers find it easier to start with the body of the essay, or to write a short, sloppy introduction as a placeholder. You can go back and work on the real introduction when the draft is complete.

修订和编辑

Revising and editing

一旦你有了完整的或接近完整的草稿，就该开始考虑修改了。尽量避免将修改视为查找和修复错误的常见陷阱。修改远不止于此。看看这个词的各个部分，你就会发现“重新审视”的意思是“再次审视”，而写作过程的修改阶段正是你重新审视草稿并对其各个方面做出真正实质性改进的机会，从组织到语气再到词汇选择。大多数成功的作家会告诉你，真正的工作是在修改阶段完成的，写作在此阶段成形并开始以最终形式呈现。大多数专业作家花在修改上的时间比写初稿的时间要多得多。不要忽略这一部分或试图匆匆完成。

Once you have a complete, or near-complete, draft, it’s time to begin thinking about revision. Try to avoid the common pitfall of thinking of revision as locating and fixing mistakes. Revision is far more than this. Looking at the parts of the word, you can see that re-vision means “seeing again,” and indeed the revision stage of the writing process is your chance to see your draft anew and make real and substantial improvements to every facet of it, from its organization to its tone to your word choices. Most successful writers will tell you that it is in the revision stage that the real work gets done, where the writing takes shape and begins to emerge in its final form. Most professional writers spend much more time revising than they do writing the first draft. Don’t skimp on this part of the process or try to race through it.

草稿完成后，最好不要立即开始进行重大修改。休息一下。锻炼身体、吃饭，做一些完全不同的事情来清理思绪。如果可能的话，将草稿搁置至少一天，这样当你重新阅读时，就会有全新的视角，并开始真正地重新审视它。打印出你的草稿。试图在屏幕上进行认真的修改通常不是一个好主意——当我们阅读打印的页面时，我们的看法会有所不同，而且我们通常会看到更多。用手中的笔阅读，并像阅读文学作品一样注释文本，寻找论点的优缺点。这里列出的过程包括三个阶段：全局修订或大规模修订；局部修订或小规模修订；以及最终编辑和校对。如果你以前没有这样做过，那么对论文进行三次修改可能看起来是一项艰巨的工作，但请记住，大多数专业作家修改作品的次数远不止这些。修改是写出最好的论文的真正关键。

It is a good idea not to start a major revision the minute a draft is complete. Take a break. Exercise, have a meal, do something completely different to clear your mind. If possible, put the draft aside for at least a day, so that when you return to it you’ll have a fresh perspective and can begin truly reseeing it. Print out your draft. Attempting serious revision on-screen is generally a bad idea — we see differently, and we usually see more, when we read off a printed page. Read with a pen in your hand and annotate your text just the way you would a piece of literature, looking for the strengths and weaknesses of your argument. The process laid out here consists of three phases: global revisions, or large-scale revisions; local revisions, or small-scale revisions; and the final editing and proofreading. If you haven’t done so before, revising your paper three times may seem like a lot of work, but bear in mind that most professional writers revise their work many more times than that. Revision is the real key to writing the best paper you can.

最终编辑和校对

Final Editing and Proofreading

第二次修改论文并达到满意的内容和风格后，就到了最后修改的时候了。这是使论文“正确”的地方。

Once you have revised your essay a second time and achieved both content and a style that please you, it’s time for a final edit. This is where you make it “correct.”

这是学生关于《哈姆雷特》的文章中一段需要最后编辑的段落。请注意学生在完成该段落之前必须进行的修改类型。

Here is a paragraph ready for final editing from a student essay on Hamlet. Notice the kinds of corrections that the student will have to make before the paragraph is done.

最后，在修改论文时，要寻求帮助。这样做既不是作弊，也不是承认失败。事实上，专业作家一直都在这样做。尽管作家们总是给人一种孤立无援的印象，但大多数成功的作家都会在各个阶段寻求建议。更重要的是，他们愿意听取建议，如果所写内容似乎没有传达出他们想要表达的意思，他们就会重新思考。

One final word of advice as you revise your paper — ask for help. Doing so is neither cheating nor an admission of defeat. In fact, professional writers do it all the time. Despite the persistent image of writers toiling in isolation, most successful writers seek advice at various stages. More important, they are willing to listen to that advice and to rethink what they have written if it seems not to be communicating what they had intended.

同行编辑和研讨会

Peer editing and workshops

有些教师会在课堂上安排草稿研讨会，有时称为同伴编辑，在研讨会上，你可以与同学一起工作，互相帮助改进正在进行的工作。 此类研讨会可以从两个方面为你带来好处。 首先，你的同学可以对你提出批评和建议，告诉你在重读时可能遗漏了什么。 其次，阅读和讨论他人的论文将有助于你成长为一名作家，向你展示处理某个主题的各种方法。 如果你真的很喜欢同学论文的某些内容 — — 比如生动的介绍或有效的幽默运用 — — 请记下它在论文中的作用，并考虑将类似的东西融入你自己未来的论文中。 当然，我们并不是提倡抄袭同学；相反，我们要指出的是，你可以从别人的写作中学到很多东西。

Some instructors give class time for draft workshops, sometimes called peer editing, in which you work with your fellow students, trying to help one another improve your work-in-progress. Such workshops can benefit you in two ways. First, your classmates can offer you critiques and advice on what you might have missed in your own rereading. Second, reading and discussing papers other than your own will help you grow as a writer, showing you a variety of ways in which a topic can be approached. If you really like something about a peer’s paper — say, a vivid introduction or the effective use of humor — make note of how it works within the paper and consider integrating something similar into a future paper of your own. We are not, of course, advocating copying your classmates; rather, we are pointing out that you can learn a lot from other people’s writing.

您的导师可能会为您提供有关在其他人的草稿中寻找什么内容的指导，或者您可能或多或少地依靠自己。无论哪种情况，请牢记以下一般指导原则：

Your instructor may give you guidelines regarding what to look for in others’ drafts, or you may be left more or less on your own. In either case, keep these general guidelines in mind:

• 尊重他人的作品。当然，你应该像对待自己的作品一样尊重和认真对待同事的作品。保持你的批评具有建设性，避免人身攻击，即使你强烈反对某个观点。你可以通过以文明和深思熟虑的方式表达相反的意见来帮助你的同行作家。
• Be respectful of one another’s work. You should, of course, treat your peers’ work with the same respect and seriousness that you would want for your own. Keep your criticism constructive and avoid personal attacks, even if you disagree strongly with an opinion. You can help your fellow writers by expressing a contrary opinion in a civilized and thoughtful manner.
• 要诚实。这意味着在需要时给出真正的、建设性的批评。不要试图通过说“那太好了”或“还行”来顾及你的研讨会伙伴的感受，而事实并非如此。当被问及在同伴研讨会上哪里做得不好时，学生最常见的回答不是他们的同伴对他们的工作太苛刻，而是他们不够苛刻。难道你不想在初稿研讨会上从同伴那里听到你工作中的问题，而不是在你交出最终稿后从教授那里听到吗？你的同学也会这样。
• Be honest. This means giving real, constructive criticism when it is due. Don’t try to spare your workshop partner’s feelings by saying, “That’s great,” or, “It’s fine,” when it really isn’t. When asked what went badly in a peer workshop, students most commonly respond not that their peers were too harsh on their work but that they were not harsh enough. Wouldn’t you rather hear about a problem with your work from a peer in a draft workshop than from your professor after you have already handed in the final draft? So would your classmates.
• 在草稿中寻找优点和缺点。无论论文多么粗糙或存在问题，都不是完全没有价值。无论论文多么聪明或写得多么好，都不是无法改进的。通过指出哪些可行哪些不可行，你将帮助你的同学成长为作家。
• Look for the good as well as the bad in a draft. No paper, no matter how rough or problematic, is completely without merit. And no paper, no matter how clever or well written, couldn’t be improved. By pointing out both what works and what doesn’t, you will help your classmates grow as writers.
• 注意时间。很容易陷入对一篇有趣论文的讨论中，而没有留出足够的时间另一篇论文。假设你有半个小时的时间来处理你的草稿和一个同学的草稿。当你达到十五分钟的标记时，继续前进，不管你的讨论有多有趣。公平就是公平。另一方面，不要在规定的时间内停止。如果你仔细阅读并认真思考彼此的草稿，那么提前完成应该是不可能的。
• Keep an eye on the time. It’s easy to get wrapped up in a discussion of an interesting paper and not allow adequate time for another paper. Say you’re given half an hour to work with your draft and that of one classmate. When you reach the fifteen-minute mark, move on, no matter how interesting your discussion is. Fair is fair. On the other hand, don’t stop short of the allotted time. If you are reading carefully and thinking hard about one another’s drafts, it should be impossible to finish early.
• 在草稿上或单独的纸上做笔记。你可能确信自己会记得研讨会上讲的内容，但你会惊讶地发现，人们经常会忘记他们听到并打算遵循的好建议。谨慎行事总比后悔好——仔细做笔记。
• Take notes on your draft itself or on a separate sheet. You may be certain that you will remember what was said in a workshop, but you would be amazed how often people forget the good advice they heard and intended to follow. Better safe than sorry — take careful notes.
• 提出问题。针对草稿中您不理解或发现有问题的部分提出问题，可以帮助作者了解需要澄清、扩展或修改的内容。有用的问题范围从大问题（本段的目的是什么？）到小问题（这是引言吗？谁说的？）。
• Ask questions. Asking questions about portions of a draft you don’t understand or find problematic can help its writer see what needs to be clarified, expanded, or reworked. Useful questions can range from large (What is the purpose of this paragraph?) to small (Is this a quote? Who said it?) in size.
• 不要以为向你的工作坊伙伴解释自己就能取代复习。有时你的工作坊伙伴会问一个问题，当你替他们回答时，他们会说，“哦，对，这很有道理”，让你觉得现在一切都清楚了。但请记住，你的同学并不是单从写作中理解的，你也不会在场向你的导师解释。
• Don’t assume that explaining yourself to your workshop partner can replace revision. Sometimes your workshop partners will ask a question, and when you answer it for them, they will say, “Oh, right, that makes sense,” leaving you with the impression that everything is clear now. But remember, your classmates didn’t understand it from the writing alone, and you won’t be there to explain it to your instructor.
• 评论要具体。诸如“介绍很好”或“这里有点令人困惑”之类的模糊评论没有多大帮助。尽量写得更具体一些，例如“介绍很有趣，真的让我想继续读下去”，或“这段话让我很困惑，因为它似乎与你上一段所说的相矛盾。”有了这样的评论，作者会更好地了解应该把精力集中在哪里进行修改。
• Be specific in your comments. Vague comments like, “The introduction is good,” or, “It’s sort of confusing here,” are not much help. Aim for something more like, “The introduction was funny and really made me want to read on,” or, “This paragraph confused me because it seems to contradict what you said in the previous one.” With comments like these, a writer will have a much better sense of where to focus his or her revision energies.
• 尽量关注大局。阅读草稿时，很容易将注意力集中在拼写、标点或词汇选择等令人分心的小错误上。虽然在阅读过程中指出或圈出这些表面问题通常没问题，但草稿研讨会并不是为了纠正错误。它是为了帮助大家从整体上重新审视和思考你的论文。
• Try to focus on the big picture. When you are reading a draft, it’s tempting to zero in on distracting little mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or word choice. While it’s generally fine to point out or circle such surface matters as you go along, a draft workshop is not about correcting mistakes. It’s about helping one another to resee and rethink your papers on a global scale.
• 鼓励你的伙伴多帮助你。如果你的研讨会伙伴看起来害羞或不愿意批评，请让他们知道你真的需要建议，并且你能够接受批评，从而鼓励他们多说。向他们指出你认为文章中的问题点，并询问他们是否有任何想法可以帮助你。当然，听到有人喜欢你的论文并且想不出如何改进它，感觉很好。但从长远来看，获得真正有用​​的建议会更好，这将有助于写出更好的论文。如果你的同学没有给你足够的帮助，你就有责任要求更多的批评。
• Push your partners to help you more. If your workshop partners seem shy or reluctant to criticize, prompt them to say more by letting them know that you really want advice and that you are able to take criticism. Point out to them what you perceive as the trouble spots in the essay, and ask if they have any ideas to help you out. It feels good, of course, to hear that someone likes your paper and cannot imagine how to improve it. But in the long run it is even better to get real, useful advice that will lead to a better paper. If your classmates are not helping you enough, it’s your responsibility to ask for more criticism.

即使你的课程没有包括研讨会时间，你仍然可以使用校园里提供的许多资源。找到班上的一两个其他成员，举办自己的同伴研讨会，阅读和批评彼此的草稿。一定要在截止日期之前安排这样的会议，以便你有足够的时间来实施你收到的任何好的修改建议。许多校园也有写作或辅导中心，这些中心的导师通常是写作熟练的高级学生，可以提供很多帮助。再次记住，你应该在论文截止日期之前提前预约导师，你不应该指望导师或导师为你修改或“修复”你的论文。这最终是你的工作。当然，你也可以在写作过程的任何阶段联系你的导师，寻求建议和帮助。

Even if your class does not include workshop time, you can still use the many resources available to you on campus. Find one or two other members of your class and conduct your own peer workshop, reading and critiquing one another’s drafts. Be sure to arrange such a meeting far enough in advance of the due date so that you will have ample time to implement any good revision advice you receive. Many campuses also have writing or tutoring centers, and the tutors in these centers, often advanced students who are skilled writers, can offer a good deal of help. Remember, again, that you should make an appointment to see a tutor well in advance of the paper’s due date, and you should not expect a tutor or mentor to revise or “fix” your paper for you. That is, ultimately, your job. And, of course, you can also approach your instructor at any phase of the writing process and ask for advice and help.

但请记住，无论您从哪里寻求建议，论文的最终责任都在您自己。您从同学、导师、朋友甚至您的导师那里得到的任何建议和帮助都只是建议和帮助。这是您的论文，您必须决定要遵循哪些建议，忽略哪些建议，以及如何实施更改以改进您的论文。关键是要保持开放的心态，从所有可用资源寻求帮助，并给自己足够的时间将您的初稿变成一份让您真正感到自豪的最终论文。

But remember, no matter where you turn for advice, the final responsibility for your paper is yours. Any advice and help you receive from classmates, tutors, friends — or even your instructor — is just that: advice and help. It is your paper, and you must be the one to make the decisions about which advice to follow and which to ignore, and how to implement changes to improve your paper. The key is to keep an open mind, seek help from all available sources, and give yourself plenty of time to turn your first draft into a final paper that makes you truly proud.

文学写作技巧

Tips for writing about literature

每种文学类型（小说、诗歌和戏剧）都为作家提出了略有不同的假设、机会和问题，后面的部分将对此进行更详细的介绍。但是，以下一般原则可以帮助您撰写任何形式的文学作品：

Each genre of literature — fiction, poetry, and drama — poses its own, slightly different set of assumptions, opportunities, and problems for writers, which are covered in more detail in the sections that follow. However, the following general principles can help you as you write about any form of literature:

• 不要假设你的读者会记住（或认为重要）文学作品中的想法或事件。你应该假设你的读者已经阅读了这些文学作品，但不一定对他们有同样的反应就像你一样。因此，只要有可能，就使用引文和摘要形式的具体例子和证据来支持你的主张。
• Don’t assume that your readers will remember (or consider important) the same ideas or incidents in the literature that you do. You should assume that your readers have read the literature but not necessarily that they have reacted to it the same way you have. Therefore, whenever possible, use specific examples and evidence in the form of quotations and summaries to back up your claims.
• 不要长篇大论地复述情节或文本。有些作者倾向于以情节摘要开始，甚至在论文开头附上一首短诗的文本。然而，这种策略可能会适得其反，因为它会延迟论文的真正内容。总结时要有辨别力——引用要简短，并尽快切入要点。
• Do not retell the plot or text at length. Some writers are tempted to begin with a plot summary or even to include the text of a short poem at the beginning of a paper. However, this strategy can backfire by delaying the real substance of your paper. Be discriminating when you summarize — keep quotations short and get to the point you want to make as quickly as possible.
• 不要以为引文或总结是自足的，可以自动证明你的观点。总结和引文是一个起点；你需要用自己的语言彻底分析它们，解释它们为什么重要。一般来说，每个引文或总结后面都应至少有几句分析。
• Do not assume that quotations or summaries are self-sufficient and prove your point automatically. Summaries and quotations are a starting point; you need to analyze them thoroughly in your own words, explaining why they are important. As a general rule, each quotation or summary should be followed by at least several sentences of analysis.
• 在撰写文学作品时，习惯使用现在时，即使所讨论的事件发生在遥远的过去。

  当朱丽叶看到罗密欧已死时，她用罗密欧的刀自杀了。

• It is customary to use the present tense when writing about literature, even if the events discussed take place in the distant past.

  When she sees that Romeo is dead, Juliet kills herself with his knife.

• 第一次提到作者时，请使用其全名。后续引用时，使用姓氏即可。（不要只使用名字；这样听起来好像您认识作者。）
• The first time you mention an author, use his or her full name. For subsequent references, the last name is sufficient. (Do not use first names only; it sounds as if you know an author personally.)
• 诗歌、短篇小说和散文的标题应放在引号中。书籍、戏剧和期刊（杂志、报纸等）的标题应使用斜体或下划线。标题和所有引文中的拼写、大小写和标点符号应与作品本身完全一致。
• Titles of poems, short stories, and essays should be put in quotation marks. Titles of books, plays, and periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and so forth) should be italicized or underlined. In titles and in all quotations, follow spelling, capitalization, and punctuation exactly as it occurs in the work itself.
• 为你的论文起一个标题。标题不需要很复杂或非常巧妙，但它应该为你的读者提供一些关于论文内容的线索，并开始设定他们的期望。简单地重述任务，例如“论文#2”或“比较和对比论文”，对读者没有多大帮助，甚至可能表明你在智力上懒惰。出于同样的原因，避免给你的论文起一个与你正在写的文学作品相同的标题；除非你是莎士比亚或海明威，否则不要将你的论文命名为哈​​姆雷特或“一个干净、明亮的地方”。
• Give your paper a title. A title doesn’t need to be elaborate or super clever, but it should give some clue to your readers as to what the paper is about and begin setting up their expectations. Simply restating the assignment, such as “Essay #2” or “Comparison and Contrast Paper,” is of little help to a reader and might even suggest intellectual laziness on your part. For the same reason, avoid giving your paper the same title as the work of literature you are writing about; unless you’re Shakespeare or Hemingway, don’t title your paper Hamlet or “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”
• 最重要的是，运用常识并保持一致。
• Above all, use common sense and be consistent.

有效使用引语

Using quotations effectively

有时候，你会想要引用你引用的文献，你也可能想要引用一些二手研究资料。引用可以让你的论文以你正在讨论的文献为基础，并防止你的论点过于抽象。它们还让文献作者有机会用他或她自己的语言来展现自己，表明你尊重和欣赏作者的作品。引用可以给你的写作带来重点、多样性和特殊性。不过，在使用引用时要有选择性，这样论文的主导声音就是你自己的，而不是别人的话的拼凑。以下是帮助你将引用有效地融入论文的一般建议。

At some point, you will want to quote the literature you are citing, and you might also want to quote some secondary research sources as well. Quotations ground your paper in the literature you are discussing and prevent your argument from being overly abstract. They also allow the author of the literature a chance to shine through in his or her own words, showing that you respect and appreciate the author’s work. Quotations bring emphasis, variety, and specificity to your writing. Be selective, though, in your use of quotations so that the dominant voice of the paper is your own, not a patchwork of the words of others. Here is general advice to help you integrate quotations effectively into your essays.